Russia targets owner of Dutch vegetable company HAK in asset seizure case

Russia wants to seize the assets of businessman Denis Shtengelov, who built a fortune in the snack industry and purchased the Dutch vegetable company HAK. According to Russian prosecutors, Shtengelov supports Ukraine’s armed forces, with which Russia is at war. They are seeking approval from a Moscow court to confiscate the assets of his food company, KDV.

The prosecutors claim that Shtengelov’s company provided food to the Ukrainian military. They also claim that he transferred profits from the Russian parts of KDV to so-called unfriendly countries.

It is also alleged that Shtengelov's father established a paramilitary unit in Ukrainian territory, and that KDV transferred revenue from Russia to so-called “unfriendly jurisdictions” without approval from the authorities, according to the Business Standard.

Shtengelov, who has lived in Australia for years, described the large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022 as a “monstrous and irrevocable mistake.” His company, KDV, bought HAK in 2021, but a year later, the Dutch canned food company was sold to Flexway, based in the United Arab Emirates. That company is also owned by Shtengelov.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government has seized assets worth 3.9 trillion rubles (about 46.8 billion dollars), often using “extremism” as the legal basis.

The Russian government has valued the KDV group at 500 billion rubles, making the case one of the largest nationalizations since the start of the war.